I was one of 111 people arrested today in front of the White House, where "no one was home." Obama, where do you stand on the topic of coal tar sand?? We sang, we were dead serious, and people like us have been doing this for 11 days. Yesterday 140 were arrested. Why? When you meet people from Nebraska, Appalachia, Texas, Oklahoma--who are losing their farms, their water supply, their healht...you know we must take action. Hearing from Indigenous people north of Toronto and here in the US, the actions leave me...wordless. I see and hear genocide, again. We'll be featuring some live stories from these folks on this website. Local folks are leaving for the Navajo reservation for their annual visit to the richest coal mining in the country. Stay tuned.
Read about the controversy, what the EPA claimed, and the one month timeframe for doing major research into the effects of a project Dr. James Hansen tells us will be the "death of any possible climate disruption reversal." The amount of water needed to refine this "sludge" into a useful petroleum product is outrageous, and today, a well-known scientist, Maude B. from Toronto told us that the water available in the Oglalla Aquifer has already greatly diminished. The impact from this Coal Tar project means that by 2030 we will see a 40% reduction in drinking water in the US. Let alone all we hear about the carbon disaster--80% more toxic than burning current petroleum we use.
I encourage everyone to write Obama often during the next three months. Re-election? Impeachment? He told us we needed to make him change the status quo--we will do just that.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
This isn't about Peace, it's About Democracy
Mike Ferner is a friend, and his thinking mirrors what we envision happening locally, as we begin working with all kinds of groups, to focus on community building in our forums. What do we want to have, and how do we get there? ..what do you think?
Mike describes the patient, methodical work required to take us out of our comfort zones, where we learn more about building movements, powerful enough to make real changes in governance....
Taken from an article by Mike Ferner (March 14, 2011)
(is the former president of Veterans for Peace and works with the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy).
I believe the messages of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) and Move to Amend, arguing the case for a self-governing citizenry, make good sense, no matter the audience.
It is because our lives are governed by powerful elites that this better life for the many eludes us. Instead, people's lives are shaped by systems -- economic, transportation, education, healthcare, agriculture, etc. -- that make the most money for the people running them -- to hell with what makes a better life for all. The wants of the few continue to trump the needs of the many ... for now.
It is precisely when we learn how to gain the power to govern ourselves -- not just the power to fix the wrongs -- that we will be able to reorder these systems to serve the common interest and create a better life. And not coincidentally, it is when we begin to take organizing seriously that we will begin this journey.
SHOULD THERE NOT BE AN ENDING THAT BRINGS US BACK TO AFGHANISTAN?
Mike describes the patient, methodical work required to take us out of our comfort zones, where we learn more about building movements, powerful enough to make real changes in governance....
Taken from an article by Mike Ferner (March 14, 2011)
(is the former president of Veterans for Peace and works with the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy).
From this kind of patient, methodical work that takes us out of our cultural and philosophical comfort zones, we can learn more about building movements powerful enough to make the change required.
And what is that change? More solar panels and mass transit for environmentalists? Better playgrounds and cleaner streets for neighborhood activists? Better housing? Good jobs? Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan? Well yes ... all this and something more: a better life that we deserve and are capable of creating, on a planet that will sustain life long after we are gone.
That means something more than fixing the wrongs. It means making the rules, defining the terms, running the show -- in a word: governing ourselves.
And what is that change? More solar panels and mass transit for environmentalists? Better playgrounds and cleaner streets for neighborhood activists? Better housing? Good jobs? Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan? Well yes ... all this and something more: a better life that we deserve and are capable of creating, on a planet that will sustain life long after we are gone.
That means something more than fixing the wrongs. It means making the rules, defining the terms, running the show -- in a word: governing ourselves.
I believe the messages of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) and Move to Amend, arguing the case for a self-governing citizenry, make good sense, no matter the audience.
It is because our lives are governed by powerful elites that this better life for the many eludes us. Instead, people's lives are shaped by systems -- economic, transportation, education, healthcare, agriculture, etc. -- that make the most money for the people running them -- to hell with what makes a better life for all. The wants of the few continue to trump the needs of the many ... for now.
It is precisely when we learn how to gain the power to govern ourselves -- not just the power to fix the wrongs -- that we will be able to reorder these systems to serve the common interest and create a better life. And not coincidentally, it is when we begin to take organizing seriously that we will begin this journey.
SHOULD THERE NOT BE AN ENDING THAT BRINGS US BACK TO AFGHANISTAN?
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Undeserved Attack on the 'Undeserving Poor'
An undeserved attack on the 'undeserving poor'
Criticism of low earners who pay no federal income tax is in fact a not-so-veiled assault on government aid for those in need.
By Michael Hiltzik
August 31, 2011
Amid the crowd-rousing shorthand employed by some American politicians, surely one of the hardiest chestnuts is the notion of the "undeserving poor."
You know the spiel, which plays to old and discredited stereotypes. It defines welfare recipients as spongers, drunks, tomcats and loose women; anyone with a swarthy visage or Hispanic accent as likely an "illegal immigrant"; anyone on unemployment as a lazy good-for-nothing; anyone receiving government assistance (other than bankers and oil company executives, of course) as a chiseler.
The most modern variation on this theme aims to be somewhat more politically correct by branding these people as "non-taxpayers."
There's a tiny kernel of truth nestled within this phrase. According to the most recent calculations by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, about 46.5% of all tax filers pay no federal income tax. That's a bit down from the peak of 50.8% reached in 2008 and 2009, but up from 39.9%, the figure for 2007. And it's way ahead of the 21% to 26% range during the 1990s, as calculated by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
The number has inspired a new talking point for anti-tax conservatives. Their claim is that relieving half of all taxpayers of the burden of taxation reduces the constituency for tax reform — the half of all voters who don't pay tax have no incentive to improve the system.
This is a transparently false rationale: The politicians making tax policy are now and have always been far more sensitive to the desires of the taxpaying sector, especially the wealthiest of them, than to the low-income earners, seniors, and students who constitute almost all of the non-taxpaying group.
It's far more instructive to view this argument in the historical context of the "undeserving poor" meme. In olden times, before taxes became such an obsession of policy wonks, the label was most often applied to relief clients, especially when politicians or the newspapers found people collecting welfare while living high on their own wealth — the "lady in mink" phenomenon, as it was known after the New York papers turned up said lady wearing said garment to collect a check at her local welfare office in 1947.
The New Yorker's legendary press critic A.J. Liebling subverted the whole yarn in a piece memorably entitled "Horsefeathers Swathed in Mink." He determined that despite having collected a five-figure divorce settlement many years before, the woman now depended for survival, along with her 5-year-old daughter, on $5.40 a day from the city welfare department. The mink was a ratty and torn old thing worth a few hundred bucks.
Liebling identified the underlying theme of all undeserving-poor narratives: "that the poor are poor because of their sins and whatever they get is too good for them." He might have added a corollary widely favored today especially by the GOP, that the rich are rich because of their inherent virtues and whatever they get is barely enough, because they're our "job creators."
Leaving aside the sad fact that the wealthy haven't created so many jobs lately even though their top marginal income tax rates are at their lowest level since 1992, it's not hard to draw a line between the 1940s view of the poor and contemporary discussions of tax policy. The Wall Street Journal editorial page did it succinctly in 2002, when the percentage of non-paying tax filers was about 30%. The editorialists labeled these people, almost all of whom were gathered at the lowest end of the income scale, as "lucky duckies" and attributed their good fortune, dismissively, to "a welter of tax credits for things like child care and education."
What's most important to keep in mind is that this critique of tax policy is necessarily selective. For one thing, the Journal's pundits didn't pay any attention to the luckiest duckies of all — wealthy non-taxpayers. The Tax Policy Center calculated that in 2009, about 123,000 tax returns reporting cash income over $200,000 also reported owing zero federal income tax — including 6,000 returns showing income over $1 million.
Moreover, by focusing on the federal income tax, which is progressive (it levies proportionately more on the wealthy than the not-so-wealthy), the critique overlooks the strongly regressive slant of the other taxes, including state and local taxes, paid by the middle class and working class. The most comprehensive analysis of state and local tax burdens comes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, another nonpartisan tax policy think tank. (How many of these things are there in Washington?)
The institute's figures show that the poor are hardly objects of envy. In its most recent survey, the institute found that in 2007, the lowest 20% of income earners (earning less than $18,000 and averaging $10,700) paid an average 10.9% of their income in state and local taxes. The biggest bite was sales and excise taxes, which took 7.1%, followed by property taxes, which even renters pay through their rent, at 3.7%. Income taxes come in last, at 0.2%. If you apply the theory that tax exemptions make the poor uninterested in tax policy, these figures should dispel that. They pay plenty.
The state and local tax burden declines pretty steadily as one rises along the income ladder. The rich don't pay nearly as high a proportion of their income as the poor. The top 1% of earners, who made $476,000 or more and averaged $1.8 million in income, paid an average of 5.2%, after deducting state and local taxes from their federal tax bills. The pre-deduction total comprised 4.2% in income tax, but only 0.9% in sales and excise taxes and 1.4% in property taxes.
Among major federal taxes, only income taxes are progressive. The effective personal income tax rate in 2007 for the lowest 20% was a negative 6.8%, thanks to all those tax credits that drive the Wall Street Journal's editorialists up the wall. For the top 1%, it was 19%. Corporate income taxes are also progressive, though it's harder to attribute them consistently to individual taxpayers.
But payroll taxes, especially for Social Security, helped narrow the difference: the effective Social Security and Medicare tax rate for the lowest 20% of wage earners was 8.8%, and for the top 1%, only 1.6%. That's because Social Security tax is levied only on the first $106,800 of wage and salary income; the further your wages rise beyond that point and the more your income comes from dividends, interest, or capital gains, the lower your effective rate.
An unspoken subtext of the non-taxpayer argument is resentment over how the tax code has become the instrument for delivering government assistance to the needy. The underlying idea of proposals such as the flat tax is that taxes should be economically neutral — designed to raise revenue, period, not to promote any particular government policy.
But why? Taxation is the most effective way of communicating policy choices, and the most efficient. If the government decides it should assist the poor, why not use an established bureaucracy to get the checks out? (Social Security is a special case, since its bureaucracy manages a discrete revenue stream.) The Supreme Court has upheld the taxing authority of the federal government for almost any purpose, which is why we have tax provisions favoring homeownership, retirement security, and oil and gas exploration, among other things.
So let's not forget what's the real issue in the debate about non-taxpayers. It's antagonism toward the government for helping out those in need. If anyone tells you anything else, that's horsefeathers.
Michael Hiltzik's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Reach him at mhiltzik@latimes.com, read past columns at latimes.com/hiltzik, check out facebook.com/hiltzik and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.
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Organize an action in your community for International Housing Rights/Zero Eviction Days in October!
Housing rights networks in the US and Canada are fighting back. The USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants has launched a campaign to fight the criminalization of the homeless and affirm the right to housing for all. The National Alliance of HUD Tenants has mobilized to fight budget cuts, rent increases and time limits on housing aid that threaten millions with displacement. Take Back the Land and others are taking direct action to block foreclosures and evictions and to house the homeless in cities across the US.
And all are joining the World Habitat Days launched by Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI)...
As threats to our homes have multiplied, housing rights networks in the US and Canada are fighting back. The USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants has launched a campaign to fight the criminalization of the homeless and affirm the right to housing for all. The National Alliance of HUD Tenants has mobilized to fight budget cuts, rent increases and time limits on housing aid that threaten millions with displacement. Take Back the Land and others are taking direct action to block foreclosures and evictions and to house the homeless in cities across the US.
The Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI) have issued a joint global Call to Action urging local housing organizations to sponsor a public action or protest in their communities starting mid September through early November, with a focus around the UN’s World Habitat Day on Monday, October 3, to raise the profile of the struggle for housing rights in opposition to neoliberal policies of massive forced evictions and foreclosures, budget cuts, criminalization of the homeless, and speculation in land and housing.
National and local organizations are called to link their currently or new planned actions related to the right to housing from mid-September through early November--demonstrations, marches, cultural events, take-overs, take-backs, truth commissions, public hearings and the like --to the global and national campaign.
This fall, Housing Rights/Zero Eviction Days will be marked in several cities by the release of More than a Roof, a grassroots documentary film chronicling the first official tour of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing to the United States. To screen, contact mtar@nesri.org.
The US has yet to act on the UN Report, which spotlighted the many failures of the wealthiest country on the planet to secure adequate housing for its people.
Since 2003, the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT) has coordinated HIC’s Housing and Land Rights Days of Action in the US each October. As threats to our homes have multiplied, NAHT has joined with the newly formed USA-Canada Alliance of Inhabitants (USACAI), an IAI affiliate, to issue this Joint Call to Action.
To participate, simply forward a brief description of your action for posting to the IAI website at www.habitants.org , the HIC website at www.hic-net.org , and the NAHT website www.saveourhomes.org . We also ask local groups to post video or news clips about their actions on the campaign websites.
* Homes, Not Jails, for the Homeless!
* No Budget Cuts to Housing! Tax the Rich Instead!
* Stop Bank Foreclosures Now!
* Stop the Privatization of Public Housing!
* Implement the UN Report on the Right to Housing!
CONTACT any of the following for more information:
International Alliance of Inhabitants: Info@habitants.org USACAI: mbricker@temple.edu
HIC’s US Board contact: Michael Kane, NAHT@saveourhomes.org
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Rep. Cantor and AIPAC tour in Israel
This article addresses the power of AIPAC, one of the most influential lobbying groups in Congress, and the military-corporate-industrial abuse of power that the US wields in Israel; or is it the other way around?
By: Josh Ruebner
Published: August 20, 2011
http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2011/aug/20/rep-cantor-put-your-constituents-economic-concerns-ar-1250435/
Americans are suffering massive cutbacks in social services, an unemployment rate stuck above 9 percent, and 10 million families face foreclosure on their homes by next year. As Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor should be at home during this August congressional recess, meeting with constituents and proposing to them and the entire country how he will help them cope with their difficult circumstances.
Instead, the politician is gallivanting around Israel, leading one of three congressional delegations heading there this month on all-expense-paid junkets organized by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a “charitable affiliate” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential of the myriad pro-Israel lobbying outfits.
Eighty-one representatives, nearly one-fifth of the House, will participate in these jaunts, which, according to the Washington Post, include “a round-trip flight in business class for lawmakers and their spouses (that alone is worth about $8,000), fine hotels and meals, side trips, and transportation and guides.”
By: Josh Ruebner
Published: August 20, 2011
http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2011/aug/20/rep-cantor-put-your-constituents-economic-concerns-ar-1250435/
Americans are suffering massive cutbacks in social services, an unemployment rate stuck above 9 percent, and 10 million families face foreclosure on their homes by next year. As Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor should be at home during this August congressional recess, meeting with constituents and proposing to them and the entire country how he will help them cope with their difficult circumstances.
Instead, the politician is gallivanting around Israel, leading one of three congressional delegations heading there this month on all-expense-paid junkets organized by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a “charitable affiliate” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential of the myriad pro-Israel lobbying outfits.
Eighty-one representatives, nearly one-fifth of the House, will participate in these jaunts, which, according to the Washington Post, include “a round-trip flight in business class for lawmakers and their spouses (that alone is worth about $8,000), fine hotels and meals, side trips, and transportation and guides.”
Anti-worker Union-busting invades Tacoma
Educate for Justice with Local Fred Meyer Warehouse Workers
Saturday, Sept 3, 9am
Gather at Teamster 313’s hall (220 S 27th St, Tacoma)
Join with local warehouse workers, members of Teamsters 117 to go out to Kroger stores like Fred Meyer to leaflet and educate our neighbors about how Kroger made $432 million in first quarter profit (a 16% increase) but wants to profit even more by doubling workers’ healthcare costs and undercut standards set by workers at its competitors like Safeway.
Background
• Fred Meyer is a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc., a company based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kroger reported over $75 billion in revenue in 2010.
• The boss has put up a 10 foot high chain link fence around the warehouse and is forcing union members to train potential scabs. Teamster 117 members voted in overwhelming numbers to authorize a strike and the union contract has expired.
• Safeway, SuperValu, and Unified Grocers settled their contracts in early August, leaving Fred Meyer as the only Teamster grocery warehouse in the area that has not reached an agreement with the Union. Since bargaining got underway on June 8, the Union and Fred Meyer have met six times. The contract at Fred Meyer’s distribution center in Puyallup covers 362 employees. The facility serves approximately 140 stores in Washington, Alaska and Idaho, and more stores in the Western Region.
• Workers in the grocery warehouse industry perform physically demanding work under a tight production standard and computerized monitoring, including bathroom breaks. They often work in sub-zero freezers and manually lift cases well over 75 pounds.
Friday, August 19, 2011
update re: this Sunday
Hi, this is an event you won't want to miss, I got to play with some of the art work. It should be great weather too...
Washington CAN and the Backbone Campaign have partnered to put Washington’s wealthiest individuals and corporations on notice. We’re tired of sacrificing jobs, healthcare and quality education while wealthy power brokers don’t pay their fair share. On Sunday, August 21st, join us at Seward Park for creative action to call out the fat cats. It’s time they pay their fair share!
Bring your dancing shoes and join the Change Your Evil Ways Flash Mob. While we dance, the Flotilla for Fairness will launch giant helium-powered banners that call the question. Combining art, music, spectacle and personal stories we’ll send a clear message that working families in Washington State are finished carrying the load alone.
Bring your voice, your dancing shoes and your watercraft to join the flotilla. Come raise a ruckus!
Where: Seward Park (On beach, south of amphitheater)
When: August 21st, 11:30 am (We’ll teach the flash mob routine and practice)
Who: The other 99% of Washington State. That’s all of us.Contact for more info: info@backbonecampaign.org
Washington CAN and the Backbone Campaign have partnered to put Washington’s wealthiest individuals and corporations on notice. We’re tired of sacrificing jobs, healthcare and quality education while wealthy power brokers don’t pay their fair share. On Sunday, August 21st, join us at Seward Park for creative action to call out the fat cats. It’s time they pay their fair share!
Bring your dancing shoes and join the Change Your Evil Ways Flash Mob. While we dance, the Flotilla for Fairness will launch giant helium-powered banners that call the question. Combining art, music, spectacle and personal stories we’ll send a clear message that working families in Washington State are finished carrying the load alone.
Bring your voice, your dancing shoes and your watercraft to join the flotilla. Come raise a ruckus!
Where: Seward Park (On beach, south of amphitheater)
When: August 21st, 11:30 am (We’ll teach the flash mob routine and practice)
Who: The other 99% of Washington State. That’s all of us.Contact for more info: info@backbonecampaign.org
Thursday, August 18, 2011
a letter to the President
Mr. President,
When I voted for you in 2008 I felt a reserved hope that I was helping to elect a president who would stand up to the fossil fuel industry and take decisive action to mitigate climate change. I am, I admit, sorely disappointed. Your environmental record is decidedly mixed. Your initiatives on fuel efficiency standards are no doubt historic, you’ve repeatedly called for an end to ludicrous oil industry subsidies and the stimulus bill invested quite a lot of money in other green initiatives. Your successes basically end there, however.
The stimulus bill, for instance, also set aside billions for ‘clean’ coal, an industry myth that you continue to publicly endorse. Your administration’s regulatory decisions have been consistently poor. Despite having clear authority to do so, your EPA remains reluctant to aggressively regulate carbon dioxide or to stop mountaintop removal mining. The Department of the Interior announced that it would sell leases to coal companies to mine the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Despite BP’s oil spill in the Gulf, you’ve begun to reissue dangerous offshore drilling permits. Worst of all, when the climate justice movement has most needed you to be a leader you’ve caved. You let the woefully inadequate, but nevertheless important cap-and-trade bill die in the Senate and put a rosy gloss on the catastrophic failure at Copenhagen, in both cases backing down from what could have been transformative confrontations with the defenders of the status quo.
For me, climate change is priority number one. It’s more important than health care, more important than banking regulations, more important, even, than the economy. It’s certainly more important to me than your re-election campaign. The reason climate change is more important to me than those issues is two-fold. First, climate change, unlike any social or economic issue, is irreversible. People may suffer in the present, but social progress is always possible. The existence of climate tipping points – from melting permafrost to melting ice sheets, from burning forests to drying peat bogs – means that, past a certain point, climate change will become a self-reinforcing process, regardless of how much we reduce emissions. Second, as the aftermath of hurricane Katrina made painfully clear, the effects of climate change fall hardest on the most vulnerable members of our society. Any other problems we need to solve will be exacerbated by unchecked climate change, and finding a solution to those problems will become less likely. Social inequality will get worse, poor people all over the world will live harder lives and the super-wealthy will fight more viciously against redistributive justice.
When I voted for you in 2008 I felt a reserved hope that I was helping to elect a president who would stand up to the fossil fuel industry and take decisive action to mitigate climate change. I am, I admit, sorely disappointed. Your environmental record is decidedly mixed. Your initiatives on fuel efficiency standards are no doubt historic, you’ve repeatedly called for an end to ludicrous oil industry subsidies and the stimulus bill invested quite a lot of money in other green initiatives. Your successes basically end there, however.
The stimulus bill, for instance, also set aside billions for ‘clean’ coal, an industry myth that you continue to publicly endorse. Your administration’s regulatory decisions have been consistently poor. Despite having clear authority to do so, your EPA remains reluctant to aggressively regulate carbon dioxide or to stop mountaintop removal mining. The Department of the Interior announced that it would sell leases to coal companies to mine the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Despite BP’s oil spill in the Gulf, you’ve begun to reissue dangerous offshore drilling permits. Worst of all, when the climate justice movement has most needed you to be a leader you’ve caved. You let the woefully inadequate, but nevertheless important cap-and-trade bill die in the Senate and put a rosy gloss on the catastrophic failure at Copenhagen, in both cases backing down from what could have been transformative confrontations with the defenders of the status quo.
For me, climate change is priority number one. It’s more important than health care, more important than banking regulations, more important, even, than the economy. It’s certainly more important to me than your re-election campaign. The reason climate change is more important to me than those issues is two-fold. First, climate change, unlike any social or economic issue, is irreversible. People may suffer in the present, but social progress is always possible. The existence of climate tipping points – from melting permafrost to melting ice sheets, from burning forests to drying peat bogs – means that, past a certain point, climate change will become a self-reinforcing process, regardless of how much we reduce emissions. Second, as the aftermath of hurricane Katrina made painfully clear, the effects of climate change fall hardest on the most vulnerable members of our society. Any other problems we need to solve will be exacerbated by unchecked climate change, and finding a solution to those problems will become less likely. Social inequality will get worse, poor people all over the world will live harder lives and the super-wealthy will fight more viciously against redistributive justice.
A Watershed Moment for Obama...Keystone XL Pipeline
It looks like Obama has an important decision coming up, to approve the tar-sands pipeline or not. The decision does not have to be approved by Congress, it's just Obama's. Hence the demonstration planned for 2 weeks starting August 20.
Anyone want to go?
Janet
By Bill McKibben, Published: August 16
The Washington Post
Ain’t eBay grand? For $10 you can buy a sack of 50 assorted Obama ’08 buttons, and that’s what I’ve been doing. If you look closely, you might see them this weekend on the lapels of some of the global warming protesters holding a sit-in outside the White House.
Already, more than a thousand people have signed up to be arrested over two weeks beginning Aug. 20 — the biggest display of civil disobedience in the environmental movement in decades and one of the largest nonviolent direct actions since the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle back before Sept. 11. (Among the first 500 to sign up, the biggest cohort was born in the Truman administration, followed closely by FDR babies and Eisenhower kids. These seniors contradict the stereotype of greedy geezers who care only about their own future.)
The issue is simple: We want the president to block construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. We have, not surprisingly, concerns about potential spills and environmental degradation from construction of the pipeline. But those tar sands are also the second-largest pool of carbon in the atmosphere, behind only the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. If we tap into them in a big way, NASA climatologist James Hansen explained in a paper issued this summer, the emissions would mean it’s “essentially game over” for the climate. That’s why the executive directors of many environmental groups and 20 of the country’s leading climate scientists wrote letters asking people to head to Washington for the demonstrations. In scientific terms, it’s as close to a no-brainer as you can get.
But in political terms it may turn out to be a defining moment of the Obama years.
That’s because, for once, the president will get to make an important call all by himself. He has to sign a certificate of national interest before the border-crossing pipeline can be built. Under the relevant statutes, Congress is not involved, so he doesn’t need to stand up to the global-warming deniers calling the shots in the House.
But the president does need to stand up to the fossil fuel industry, which has done its best to influence the decision. Since the State Department plays a role in recommending a decision, the main pipeline company helpfully hired the former national deputy director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign as its lead lobbyist. WikiLeaks documents emerged recently showing U.S. envoys conspiring with the oil industry to win favorable media coverage for tar sands oil. If you were a cynic, you’d say the fix was in.
Still, the final call rests with Barack Obama, who said the night that he clinched the Democratic nomination in June 2008 that his ascension would mark “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Now he gets a chance to prove that he meant it. In basketball terms, he’s alone at the top of the key — will he take the 20-foot jumper or pass the ball? It’s a rare, character-defining moment. Obama can’t escape it simply by saying that someone else will burn the oil if we don’t. Alberta is remote, and its only other possible pipeline route — to the Pacific and hence Asia — is tangled in litigation. That’s why the province’s energy minister told Canada’s Globe and Mail last month that without the Keystone pipeline Alberta would be “landlocked in bitumen,” the technical name for the heavy, gooey tar that is its chief export. Critics may argue otherwise, but Obama’s call is key; without it, that oil will stay in the ground for at least a while longer. Long enough, perhaps, that the planet will come fully to its senses about climate change.
It’s hard to predict what will happen. Earlier this summer Al Gore tossed up his hands in despair: “President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis,” Gore said. “He has not defended the science against the ongoing withering and dishonest attacks.” Yet it’s hard to give up on the image of the skinny senator from Illinois and the young people who were his most fervent supporters — young people who, according to pollsters, wanted a climate bill by a 5-to-1 margin. That didn’t happen, of course; for now, the Keystone pipeline is the best proxy we have for real presidential commitment to the global warming fight.
Hence the buttons. Many of us will be wearing them while we sit outside his house, in an effort to show that we’re not, exactly, protesting. We’re trying to rekindle some of that passion from his groundbreaking campaign. We’re trying to remind ourselves and the president how good it felt to be full of hope.
The writer is the Schumann distinguished scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont and has helped organize Tarsandsaction.org.
--
Anyone want to go?
Janet
By Bill McKibben, Published: August 16
The Washington Post
Ain’t eBay grand? For $10 you can buy a sack of 50 assorted Obama ’08 buttons, and that’s what I’ve been doing. If you look closely, you might see them this weekend on the lapels of some of the global warming protesters holding a sit-in outside the White House.
Already, more than a thousand people have signed up to be arrested over two weeks beginning Aug. 20 — the biggest display of civil disobedience in the environmental movement in decades and one of the largest nonviolent direct actions since the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle back before Sept. 11. (Among the first 500 to sign up, the biggest cohort was born in the Truman administration, followed closely by FDR babies and Eisenhower kids. These seniors contradict the stereotype of greedy geezers who care only about their own future.)
The issue is simple: We want the president to block construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. We have, not surprisingly, concerns about potential spills and environmental degradation from construction of the pipeline. But those tar sands are also the second-largest pool of carbon in the atmosphere, behind only the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. If we tap into them in a big way, NASA climatologist James Hansen explained in a paper issued this summer, the emissions would mean it’s “essentially game over” for the climate. That’s why the executive directors of many environmental groups and 20 of the country’s leading climate scientists wrote letters asking people to head to Washington for the demonstrations. In scientific terms, it’s as close to a no-brainer as you can get.
But in political terms it may turn out to be a defining moment of the Obama years.
That’s because, for once, the president will get to make an important call all by himself. He has to sign a certificate of national interest before the border-crossing pipeline can be built. Under the relevant statutes, Congress is not involved, so he doesn’t need to stand up to the global-warming deniers calling the shots in the House.
But the president does need to stand up to the fossil fuel industry, which has done its best to influence the decision. Since the State Department plays a role in recommending a decision, the main pipeline company helpfully hired the former national deputy director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign as its lead lobbyist. WikiLeaks documents emerged recently showing U.S. envoys conspiring with the oil industry to win favorable media coverage for tar sands oil. If you were a cynic, you’d say the fix was in.
Still, the final call rests with Barack Obama, who said the night that he clinched the Democratic nomination in June 2008 that his ascension would mark “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Now he gets a chance to prove that he meant it. In basketball terms, he’s alone at the top of the key — will he take the 20-foot jumper or pass the ball? It’s a rare, character-defining moment. Obama can’t escape it simply by saying that someone else will burn the oil if we don’t. Alberta is remote, and its only other possible pipeline route — to the Pacific and hence Asia — is tangled in litigation. That’s why the province’s energy minister told Canada’s Globe and Mail last month that without the Keystone pipeline Alberta would be “landlocked in bitumen,” the technical name for the heavy, gooey tar that is its chief export. Critics may argue otherwise, but Obama’s call is key; without it, that oil will stay in the ground for at least a while longer. Long enough, perhaps, that the planet will come fully to its senses about climate change.
It’s hard to predict what will happen. Earlier this summer Al Gore tossed up his hands in despair: “President Obama has never presented to the American people the magnitude of the climate crisis,” Gore said. “He has not defended the science against the ongoing withering and dishonest attacks.” Yet it’s hard to give up on the image of the skinny senator from Illinois and the young people who were his most fervent supporters — young people who, according to pollsters, wanted a climate bill by a 5-to-1 margin. That didn’t happen, of course; for now, the Keystone pipeline is the best proxy we have for real presidential commitment to the global warming fight.
Hence the buttons. Many of us will be wearing them while we sit outside his house, in an effort to show that we’re not, exactly, protesting. We’re trying to rekindle some of that passion from his groundbreaking campaign. We’re trying to remind ourselves and the president how good it felt to be full of hope.
The writer is the Schumann distinguished scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont and has helped organize Tarsandsaction.org.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Hoquiam Approached for Coal Terminal
Linda Orgel, with Friends of Grays Harbor, sent this update:
We are indeed concerned about this latest coal development and have already begun the process of responding to it. Last Wednesday, we assembled about a dozen people to hear the "proposal" from Rail America and their consultant group, Strategies 360. According to them they currently have no customer, no plan and no permits.
They then proceeded to tell us that they would be bringing in 5 million metric tons of coal on 1 mile to 1-1/2 mile long train. BUT, only one a day. (This was the same story told to Longview by another company, which turned out to be totally bogus. Internal emails showed that company planned to ship 5 times that amount. We don't know what Rail America is thinking of - neither do they). The coal would be stockpiled at a facility that someone would build (perhaps them or another shipper) at Terminal 3, next to the former Hoquiam wastewater treatment ponds and at the edge of The Grays Harbor National Refuge. The coal cars and the stockpiles are not covered. One of our members calculated that 47 pounds of coal dust per foot of travel escapes off of the cars, using information from Burlington Northern that showed from studies that 3% of the load escaped.
The expressions of the group as a whole were positive to the idea of the railway improving their line and even improving Terminal 3 because of the promise of jobs, but negative to the product proposed to be put there.
There was concern for issues of climate change which the consultant seemed to dismiss as a valid issue. There was concern for water quality and the ultimate loss of jobs and oysterland in the oyster business. There was concern for air pollution as coal dust would be picked up by prevailing winds and sent towards Hoquiam and Aberdeen, as well as the areas around the rail route. There were concerns about the traffic issue and blocking the roadways in Aberdeen and on the port property.
FOGH has been contacted by Climate Solutions and Sierra Club and will likely form a coalition with them and with our local Audubon and Surfrider chapters. Earthjustice is the legal representation for Climate Solutions in their fight against the Longview and Bellingham sites.
We are indeed concerned about this latest coal development and have already begun the process of responding to it. Last Wednesday, we assembled about a dozen people to hear the "proposal" from Rail America and their consultant group, Strategies 360. According to them they currently have no customer, no plan and no permits.
They then proceeded to tell us that they would be bringing in 5 million metric tons of coal on 1 mile to 1-1/2 mile long train. BUT, only one a day. (This was the same story told to Longview by another company, which turned out to be totally bogus. Internal emails showed that company planned to ship 5 times that amount. We don't know what Rail America is thinking of - neither do they). The coal would be stockpiled at a facility that someone would build (perhaps them or another shipper) at Terminal 3, next to the former Hoquiam wastewater treatment ponds and at the edge of The Grays Harbor National Refuge. The coal cars and the stockpiles are not covered. One of our members calculated that 47 pounds of coal dust per foot of travel escapes off of the cars, using information from Burlington Northern that showed from studies that 3% of the load escaped.
The expressions of the group as a whole were positive to the idea of the railway improving their line and even improving Terminal 3 because of the promise of jobs, but negative to the product proposed to be put there.
There was concern for issues of climate change which the consultant seemed to dismiss as a valid issue. There was concern for water quality and the ultimate loss of jobs and oysterland in the oyster business. There was concern for air pollution as coal dust would be picked up by prevailing winds and sent towards Hoquiam and Aberdeen, as well as the areas around the rail route. There were concerns about the traffic issue and blocking the roadways in Aberdeen and on the port property.
FOGH has been contacted by Climate Solutions and Sierra Club and will likely form a coalition with them and with our local Audubon and Surfrider chapters. Earthjustice is the legal representation for Climate Solutions in their fight against the Longview and Bellingham sites.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed
A large majority of the American people consistently support the following agenda:
- Tax the rich and corporations
- End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
- Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
- End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
- Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
- Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
- Get money out of politics
The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want. The American people’s agenda is our agenda.
The broad agenda for Stop the Machine: Create a New World is to end corporatism and militarism and shift power to the people, so necessities can be met. In addition to stopping the machine we also want to show the “new world” we want to see. The seven issues above are part of our agenda, each of these issues are discussed below, primarily in relation to showing that according to polls, large majorities of Americans support each issue and in many cases have done so for years.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Lost in the Debt Ceiling Debate: The Legal Duty to Create Jobs
What are your ideas for job creation in WA State?
Ever wondered why solar panels or geothermal alternatives aren't a major industry...?
Feel free to remind your legislators that HR 870 is in place, and should be enacted, now. Marjorie Cohn, past President of the National Lawyers Guild, sent this our way:
By Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn
August 11, 2011
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/11-0
The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation
about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the
government that it has a legal duty to create jobs, and must act
immediately – if not through Congress, then through the Federal
Reserve.
With official unemployment reaching over 9%, the unofficial rate in
double digits, and the unemployment rate for people of color more than
double that of whites, it is nerve wracking to hear right wing
political pundits say the government cannot create jobs. Do people
really believe this canard? On “Real Time with Bill Maher” a few weeks
ago, Chris Hayes of The Nation stated that the government should
create and has in the past created jobs, but he was put down by that
intellectual giant Ann Coulter who said, ”but they (WPA jobs) were
only temporary jobs.” No one challenged her.
Most of the jobs created under the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) - and there were millions of them - lasted for many years, or
until those employed found other gainful employment. They provided a
high enough income to allow the worker’s family to meet basic needs,
and they created demand for goods in an economy that was suffering,
like today’s economy, from lack of demand. The WPA program succeeded
in sustaining and creating many more jobs in the private sector due to
the demand for goods that more people with incomes generated.
Ever wondered why solar panels or geothermal alternatives aren't a major industry...?
Feel free to remind your legislators that HR 870 is in place, and should be enacted, now. Marjorie Cohn, past President of the National Lawyers Guild, sent this our way:
By Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn
August 11, 2011
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/11-0
The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation
about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the
government that it has a legal duty to create jobs, and must act
immediately – if not through Congress, then through the Federal
Reserve.
With official unemployment reaching over 9%, the unofficial rate in
double digits, and the unemployment rate for people of color more than
double that of whites, it is nerve wracking to hear right wing
political pundits say the government cannot create jobs. Do people
really believe this canard? On “Real Time with Bill Maher” a few weeks
ago, Chris Hayes of The Nation stated that the government should
create and has in the past created jobs, but he was put down by that
intellectual giant Ann Coulter who said, ”but they (WPA jobs) were
only temporary jobs.” No one challenged her.
Most of the jobs created under the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) - and there were millions of them - lasted for many years, or
until those employed found other gainful employment. They provided a
high enough income to allow the worker’s family to meet basic needs,
and they created demand for goods in an economy that was suffering,
like today’s economy, from lack of demand. The WPA program succeeded
in sustaining and creating many more jobs in the private sector due to
the demand for goods that more people with incomes generated.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Rally with CHC Workers & BBQ - Lakewood
This story resonates with me. I wish I were there in solidarity with these community members who are doing essential work. I've asked J4J to notify us when upcoming actions are scheduled.
CHC Staff to Strike for Care
Tuesday August 9, 6:00 pm
Lakewood Community Health Clinic (10510 Gravelly Lake Dr SW, Lakewood)
Community Health Care (CHC) bosses are dictating dramatic cuts to staff wages and healthcare that will leave healthcare out of reach for many of the CHC staff. The 180 frontline healthcare workers at CHC advocate for us, helping us overcome the barriers to care especially in low-income communities. CHC bosses are also dictating cuts to frontline healthcare delivery in our community.
“As a cancer survivor and a single parent, I have to choose between putting food on the table or healthcare. The increased cost of healthcare is going to be unaffordable to me. I work in a community clinic providing care for the community – why can’t my family have healthcare, too?” Emerita Espinoza, Outreach Referral Worker.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Coalition meeting August 13th
A broad-based group is meeting to strategically plan a statewide campaign.
Organizers with Move to Amend, Olympia, Pierce and King County Washington Public Campaigns, Free Speech for People, MoveOn, Involved Democracy and Washington Community Action Network are meeting Saturday, August 13th to organize a statewide campaign to amend the State Resolution, SJM 8007. This event will take place at the Federal Way Library from 10 am until 12:45 pm. The address is 848 S. 320th St., Federal Way, 98003. Please RSVP at the address below.
Contact Molly at M2AOly@gmail.com with questions. Directions to the library:
From I-5 North or South: Take Exit 143, (320th Street/The Commons Mall). Turn west onto 320th for about 1 mile, passing through 5 traffic lights. The library is on the right, 1/2 block beyond traffic light at 11th Place S.
From Highway 18: Continue on Highway 18 to Pacific Highway South, turn right. Go to 320th Street, turn left. You will go through 1 traffic light at 11th Place South. 320th Library is on the right, 1/2 block beyond light.
Getting here by bus: Metro Transit:
Federal Way 320th Library is served by bus routes 179, 181, 187, 197, 903. For more information on routes and schedules.
Organizers with Move to Amend, Olympia, Pierce and King County Washington Public Campaigns, Free Speech for People, MoveOn, Involved Democracy and Washington Community Action Network are meeting Saturday, August 13th to organize a statewide campaign to amend the State Resolution, SJM 8007. This event will take place at the Federal Way Library from 10 am until 12:45 pm. The address is 848 S. 320th St., Federal Way, 98003. Please RSVP at the address below.
Contact Molly at M2AOly@gmail.com with questions. Directions to the library:
From I-5 North or South: Take Exit 143, (320th Street/The Commons Mall). Turn west onto 320th for about 1 mile, passing through 5 traffic lights. The library is on the right, 1/2 block beyond traffic light at 11th Place S.
From Highway 18: Continue on Highway 18 to Pacific Highway South, turn right. Go to 320th Street, turn left. You will go through 1 traffic light at 11th Place South. 320th Library is on the right, 1/2 block beyond light.
Getting here by bus: Metro Transit:
Federal Way 320th Library is served by bus routes 179, 181, 187, 197, 903. For more information on routes and schedules.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The Last Mountain - Capitol Theater
Wendy Tanowitz recommends this film; it's difficult to watch, go with a friend.
August 5 – 11
The Last Mountain
Fri. 8/5 6:30; Sat. 8/6 9:00; Sun. 8/7 5:00; Mon. 8/8 6:30; Tue. 8/9 9:00; Wed. 8/10 6:30; Thur. 8/11 4:00 & 9:00
Dir.: Bill Haney / 2011 / US / 95 min / 35mm film
Notions of “clean coal” have recently offered hope for one path to sustainable energy sources. But this documentary raises serious questions about that. It looks closely at the environmental and social costs in one tiny corner of West Virginia, where residents have decided to take a stand against Massey Energy (currently defending against a lawsuit brought by relatives of a mining explosion disaster last year). The specific issue under examination is a process known as “mountain removal mining,” which involves, as the term implies, reducing entire mountains to nubs. It may seem at first a reasonable enough—if drastic—strategy for reaching energy independence, but filmmaker Bill Haney has put together a compelling and bracing argument for caution, based on direct environmental consequences, use of contaminants in extracting the coal, and cultural destruction in neighboring communities and their ways of life. The film also argues for alternative strategies, such as wind power. “The staggering disregard for life on display here is eye-opening and infuriating,” writes Mark Holcomb of the Village Voice. “… this environmental exposé confirms every awful suspicion ever raised about the coal industry.”
August 5 – 11
The Last Mountain
Fri. 8/5 6:30; Sat. 8/6 9:00; Sun. 8/7 5:00; Mon. 8/8 6:30; Tue. 8/9 9:00; Wed. 8/10 6:30; Thur. 8/11 4:00 & 9:00
Dir.: Bill Haney / 2011 / US / 95 min / 35mm film
Notions of “clean coal” have recently offered hope for one path to sustainable energy sources. But this documentary raises serious questions about that. It looks closely at the environmental and social costs in one tiny corner of West Virginia, where residents have decided to take a stand against Massey Energy (currently defending against a lawsuit brought by relatives of a mining explosion disaster last year). The specific issue under examination is a process known as “mountain removal mining,” which involves, as the term implies, reducing entire mountains to nubs. It may seem at first a reasonable enough—if drastic—strategy for reaching energy independence, but filmmaker Bill Haney has put together a compelling and bracing argument for caution, based on direct environmental consequences, use of contaminants in extracting the coal, and cultural destruction in neighboring communities and their ways of life. The film also argues for alternative strategies, such as wind power. “The staggering disregard for life on display here is eye-opening and infuriating,” writes Mark Holcomb of the Village Voice. “… this environmental exposé confirms every awful suspicion ever raised about the coal industry.”
Monday, August 1, 2011
WA State bill to abolish corporate personhood
We've been getting a lot of questions about this bill, and the one introduced by the WA State Democrats. Both are posted on the Resources page, where we will continue to post updates. Stay tuned for more info on the campaign to support the State bill SJM 8007.
More Info: read the full text on Resources page
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